Tough-movement and raising

[pne]

The grammar of the Niuean language that I have (by Seiter, IIRC), uses the term "tough-movement" (I don't remember off-hand whether he used the hyphen in the book or not).

I recently came across this term again on the CONLANG mailing list, and don't really know what it means.

Apparently, it involves or is related to raising, which I think I sort of understand from the examples given, but I don't know what to make of tough-movement.

Can any of the linguistics geeks on my friends list provide any insight on TM and possibly raising? isabeau? pthalogreen?

Comments

raising

[pne.livejournal.com]

No -- I mean raising a phrase(?) from a subordinate structure to a superordinate one.

Something like "I see (he is drinking coffee)" --> "I see him drinking coffee", I think, where the subject of the subordinate clause is "raised" into the main clause and becomes an object of "see". Or "I want (he does his homework)" --> "I want him to do his homework".

I may be a bit off on my examples but that's the general gist of what I gathered.

Re: raising

[fweebles.livejournal.com]

Aha, not at all what I was thinking:

http://www.yorku.ca/twainweb/troberts/raising.html

:)

Re: raising

[pne.livejournal.com]

*nods* Yes, pretty much completely unrelated. Thanks for the interesting link, though. (And having listened to the "about the house" clip, I'm not sure how you can hear "aboot" out of that.)

Re: raising

[fweebles.livejournal.com]

Americans do, because they often pronounce "ou" as owwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, with a drawn-out w that almost comprises an entirely separate syllable.

I've been told I say "aboot", which I definitely do not. :)

Re: raising

[angharad.livejournal.com]

Well, it's the difference between "u" (Italian vowel) and "w" (Welsh vowel) being the final portion of your diphthong. It confuses the Americans.

Re: raising

[fweebles.livejournal.com]

I should add that "Americans" is an overgeneralization. The "ou -> ow" pronunciation happens primarily in the midwest and mid-south US.

On the other hand, people who live in Minnesota and Wisconsin, for example, often sound like Manitobans (and also say things like "eh" and "aboot").

Re: raising

[angharad.livejournal.com]

Yah, they sure do! It's a hoot! <----(must be said in those vowels for maximum humour)